of Crown Works, Tyburn, Birmingham 24. Telephone: Erdington 1661/23/4. Telegraphic Address: "Mosgear, Birmingham". (1937)
1910 Company founded. The company was formed under it's original name of Moss Gear Co by the Dukitt (Duckett?) family in Aston, West Midlands. They named the company Moss Gear, as the 'family originated from Moss Side', Yorkshire. The company started by manufacturing Spiral Bevel gears and Gearboxes for the developing car and motorcycle industry.
1920 The company expanded its product range to include the production of Industrial Gearboxes.
1935 Public company.
1937 British Industries Fair Advert for Efficient and Compact Units for every Industrial Transmission. Machine Cut Gears, Industrial Gear Units, Automobile components, Traction Gears, Camshafts, Geared Motors, Deep-well Pumps, Universal Joints, Diesel Gears, Stoker Gearboxes, chain Wheels, Aircraft Gears and Components, Geared Pumps. (Engineering/Metals/Quarry, Roads and Mining/Transport Section - Stand No. D.520)
1937 Gears and gear units.
1938 Moss Gear employed over 2,000 employees and relocated production to Tyburn. The company expanded it's product range again to include Prop Shafts, Gear Couplings, Agricultural axles and mechanics joints.
1940 The company was taken over temporarily by the British Ministry Of Defence for the duration of the Second World War. The production is switched to the transmission for tanks and other military vehicles.
1940 Advert for gears and gear units. [1]
1940s Advert for Moss Gears, Hypoid Rear Axles.
1945 Advert for industrial gearing.
1949 Production reverted to civilian applications such as gearboxes for companies such as Jensen, Morgan Motor Co and Jaguar.
1961 Manufacturers of automobile, industrial and aircraft gears. Also produce component parts of internal combustion engines, complete front and rear axles, propeller shafts, universal joints, industrial geared units, couplings and other parts for light and heavy motor cars and road haulage vehicles. 1,000 employees. [2]
1963 Motor Show exhibitor. Gear box and components. [3]
1966 The Tyburn factory closed and production was split between Merthyr Tydvil in Wales, and Accrington in the North West of England. The Accrington factory concentrated mainly on gearboxes, forklift truck and commercial vehicle axles.
1982 Due to restructuring at Moss Gear, there was a management buy-out of the Accrington division. The newly formed company, F. P. W. Axles, was named after the management team: Basil Fone, Frank Pickles and Len Wilson. F.P.W. Axles consolidated the product range to allow the specialisation of axle production.
1983 January - Moss Gears of Methyr Tydfil, went into receivership following troubles in its parent graoup Moss Engineering. £280,000 was put up by the Welsh Development Agency and £150,000 by businessmen including former management of the company. The managing director of the new company was Colin Mason.[4]
1983 Axle manufacturing rights of British Leyland's Light Axle Division purchased in order to complement the existing product range.
1995 Woodfield Engineering Co was purchased to further increase manufacturing capacity and product diversity.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Mechanical World Year Book 1940. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p61
- ↑ 1961 Dun and Bradstreet KBE
- ↑ 1963 Motor Show
- ↑ The Engineer 1983/01/20
- [1] FPW Axles
- 1937 British Industries Fair Advert p641
- 1937 The Aeroplane Directory of the Aviation and Allied Industries
- [2] Old Classic Cars
- Mechanical World Year Book 1945. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p75
- Mechanical World Year Book 1951. Published by Emmott and Co of Manchester. Advert p75